Happy Halloween!

This was a busy week--I'm glad it's over. I finally finished my big project (hurray!) Wednesday night and sent it off, only to wake up in a panic Thursday morning remembering one final thing I'd forgotten to do. So I fixed it and re-sent it. But it's really done now.

On Wednesday, we did a dry run of Andrew's face paint. We replicated it again Thursday morning for his preschool party. (Evelyn wanted to paint *my* face--I told her no. I know, I'm a mean mommy who didn't want paint in her eyes.) He wore his costume to school; Evelyn wore hers to her dance class that morning. Andrew changed out of his costume when he got home; Evelyn did not. I think she wore this poor Minnie outfit three days running. (At least we're getting our money's worth out of it!)

Friday night we went to a friend's Halloween party. Dan went reluctantly (we all know what a big fan of large gatherings he is), but it ended up being a lot of fun. For one thing, there were only four families there, and we knew everyone, so it wasn't the crowd he'd been fearing. For another, they live in the country (well, sort of) and they had a big backyard. The kids bounced on the trampoline while the grown-ups talked, then we had a yummy dinner of soups and cornbread. (Few things beat a warm soup on a crisp fall evening). Finally, they lit a bonfire and the kids roasted marshmallows. As far as Halloween parties go, I think this pretty much captures my idea of a good fall-themed party. (Not heavy on the scary or the sweet.)

Saturday, of course, since we're in Utah, we celebrated Halloween. After a morning spent running errands, we finally got down to business. We fed the kids, got them in their costumes (which was harder than it looks because Andrew wouldn't hold still for his face paint--he kept squinting his eyes and whimpering, which, if you've ever tried to paint someone's face, you'll know that this *really* messes up your lines. So I got mad, yelled at him, and he cried, which meant that we had to re-do his paint, since I'd bought this nice, kid-friendly water-based paint.)

He's a nightfury, from How To Train Your Dragon (in case you were wondering what kind of blue-faced Monster he is.

And, contrary to what might appear here, Evelyn is *not* some kind of zombie Minnie Mouse. She's just a regular Minnie, but she insisted on having her face painted too. (The ears only lasted about four houses before she took them off and gave them to me).


We had a fun night--the weather wasn't too cold, the kids were (mostly) polite (well, and there were so few kids trick-or-treating in our neighborhood that most of the neighbors gave them two, three, even four pieces of candy). And we avoided candy overload by the simple expedient of putting them to bed soon after we got home.

We hope you also had a lovely weekend!